Palliative Care

Mercy Gilbert's Palliative Care program provides a special kind of care for individuals and families who are living with a life-threatening illness. In keeping with the hospital's mission to improve the health of our community, the program embraces the patient and family as a unit and recognizes cultural, ethnic and spiritual differences.

Palliative Care refers to the specialized approach toward improving the quality of life for patients with serious illness, as well as addressing the concerns of their families. The goal is to provide symptomatic and emotional support to patients suffering from a potentially life-threatening illness by ensuring their comfort and dignity.

Our interdisciplinary treatment approach focuses on the person, not just a specific disease, by offering comprehensive management of physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and existential symptoms for the patient and family during any state of a serious illness while improving the quality of life.

Palliative Care differs from hospice care in that the patient can continue to receive appropriate, active, curative treatment and need not have a life expectancy of six months or less. The Palliative Care team provides skilled, compassionate care while the patient is hospitalized, and ensures the best discharge plan to meet the needs of this unique patient and their family. The team's aim is to relieve suffering and improve quality of life during any state of a life-threatening illness, from diagnosis through the end of life and bereavement.